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July 24, 2011

And Operation Awesome Pants is a success!

I completely was not thinking about this when I picked out the rest of the outfit, but I somehow ended up styling them rather like the original Anthropologie picture for their public debut! My thought process was way more "ooh, now I can finally wear that ModCloth vest I'd debated for ages before caving and have barely been able to figure out what to wear it with since." But here's my picture.... (please ignore the frizzy hair and shiny face, this was taken just after making multiple trips up and down the stairs and out to my car in 98-degree weather to unload from last week's dogsitting job)

And here's the original model shot. I don't even have that much pink-- the only reason I have this shirt is basically due to a wager of sorts with one of my friends (i.e. she'd go hiking with me if I wore a pink shirt, since it's my least favorite color.) Crazy, huh?

Anyway, how did I do? I do wish the lacing was closer in color to the actual pants, but I know that making it from the linen would not have worked with the eyelet holes--as it is, this cording just barely fit. So the tea-dyeing was the closest I could get.

And a shot of the back. This is hands-down the best pants-fitting job I've ever done.

A few close-up details:

Of course I had to put an interesting button on. I've had this one in my stash for years-- I think I originally got it thinking it would look cool on jeans. (I have another one, so I still might try that.) I think it's supposed to be a sundial of sorts, since there's little Roman numerals etched around the edge-- 1 through 24.

The waistband facing and some of the seam finishing. I did the Hong Kong finishes on the straight seam, and for more difficult ones like the ones in the pleat and the curved crotch seams, I did more of a zigzag seam finish. (I took a tip from Sunni over at A Fashionable Stitch and did the zigzagging more next to the edge than over it, like I've always done before-- I never thought to do it that way! The linen is so fray-prone that it looks very much like I just stitched it over the edge anyway, but I'm hoping that will prevent it from happening more.)

Incidentally, I think this cotton print that I randomly had in my stash was the perfect complement to the caramel-colored linen! And I managed to use up all but one largish triangle, which I have plans for....

This is certainly the best-looking/most painless fly-front zipper I've done to date. Does that mean I've conquered my nemesis?

The one thing I do still need to do is figure out how to best finish the ends of the cording--it's just a braided cotton, so it could easily get unbraided and turn into fringe. Which, just, no. I don't really have enough to tie knots at the end-- as it is, I barely had enough to knot the ends of the lacing itself! But I wasn't going to let a little detail like that stop me from wearing them today. (It's just going to stop me from washing them quite yet. Which is probably TMI.)

Anyway, since this project's been well over four months in the making, as well as the major hold-up in my Summer Essentials plan, it's good to finally have it (basically) done! I'm feeling rather accomplished. And in need of a quick sewing project. I sense a quick-n-dirty refashion in my future....

I did think about leather, but I was worried about how it would wash up. I actually do have a decent amount of suede lacing on hand, since I needed some to replace a half-destroyed hanging cord for a wall item, but it's a noticeably darker tan than the pants. So I'm honestly not sure it would be much better. I'll take a pic of it next to the linen at some point tomorrow and you all can tell me what you think, maybe?

They look great! I actually like that the cords are a bit of a color contrast, it makes that cool detail stand out more. I also love your attention to detail: hong kong seams, that cool button - and a great zipper insertion!

I've seen braids "tied off" with a bit of self-string from the braid. Not sure if it would work here if your ends are too short, but basically you take one or two strings out from the braid, loop them around the end and tie them. Or you could tie them with a piece of string and thread the ends into the braid, so it doesn't come off...

Those are some amazing pants!!! Perfectly Ridiculous if you ask me =). They look really nice on and I love the attention to detail you paid to the interior details. Stuff like that always makes me smile =). Well done!